Apple Tree fertility and production ?

[wooduck]

Some interesting discussion on varieties today , provokes some thoughts and questions . Quite a few members have a large planting of trees and lots of differing varieties spread out over a large geographical area , differing soils, climate ect.

Have you done soil or tissue testing to get a handle on micro nutrients that may be lacking or out of balance that may affect how a apple tree grows in your area ? We have done both semi yearly as applied nutrients can take along time to be utilized by trees. Have been using foliar testing more often lately and apply some micros as they are cheap and apply easily , sure seems to increase tree health growth .

Most seem to know honeycrisp is easily calcium deficient , we have high calcium soils and have applied some lime for ph and never see any bitter pit .

Thoughts?

 

[sandbur]

I have one HC tree left and feel I should take it down. It is a pain to raise for guys that don't soil test. Our pH does run low and I have added some lime at time. I need to lookup bitter pit and see what it is.

The soil also varies quite a bit where I have my apples planted from lighter soil to what is very good corn ground (by our standards).

 

[sandbur]

Without doing any soil testing for years, it seems like my trees (other than HC) benefit from some lime around them and some fruit tree spikes. I have been makign a hole for the spikes and adding some pel lime to the hole. I know this is not practical for an orchard of woodducks size, but I use the spikes on a few choice trees. I also liek the spikes further up in USDA zone 3 on lighter soils.

Other trees of mine get a spadeful of chicken manure/bedding thrown at them. Works OK.

I have read thaat crabs will tolerat slightly lower pH. What do you think wooduck?

 

[wooduck]

It seems like its hard to slow down the chessnuts they may very well produce fruit under any conditions , at least here that's the case . Some of the (new ) apples seem to be more finicky I wouldn't give up on honeycrisp .


Was at apple meeting many years ago and the speaker that day was from Arkansaw and they had done replicated trails on ground cover management around trees . The conclusion of the day was a mulched tree was always more productive , than un mulched and of coarse the discussion went to types of mulch and the speaker said some mulches are better than others but any mulch was always better than none . We have both prefer to mulch but takes time and labor , so some are un mulched . Sanbur if your trees are struggling try 2 to 4 inches of mulch , Prevents drought stress , released micros , moderates soil temps, hosts mice but easily controlled via bait stations .

 

[aerospacefarmer]

What is the best way to get the testing you mentioned done and from whom?

 

[wooduck]

We have had soils done by state university and Midwest labs , Midwest has done our foliar we take samples same week every year to control valuables some on our end ,, usually 2nd week in july or so like to have new years growth pushed out first then take leaf samples . Revealed some simple fixes in some ways it does not matter what the soil test says what's important is what the tree takes up .

 

[chickenlittle]

What is the typical cost? Penn State is $24 per sample. That is suggested to be 40 to 50 leaves from a block of trees of one variety on one rootstock. Hard to do for habitat trees.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

What is the typical cost? Penn State is $24 per sample. That is suggested to be 40 to 50 leaves from a block of trees of one variety on one rootstock. Hard to do for habitat trees.

Yes a bit steep even with 400 trees that I hope to do something more with but I will look into it

 

[Turkey Creek]

Sampling would be cost prohibitive with a large number of varieties, but I would single out struggling trees. Probably not a need to analyze healthy trees that are producing good fruit.

 

[sandbur]

It seems like its hard to slow down the chessnuts they may very well produce fruit under any conditions , at least here that's the case . Some of the (new ) apples seem to be more finicky I wouldn't give up on honeycrisp .


Was at apple meeting many years ago and the speaker that day was from Arkansaw and they had done replicated trails on ground cover management around trees . The conclusion of the day was a mulched tree was always more productive , than un mulched and of coarse the discussion went to types of mulch and the speaker said some mulches are better than others but any mulch was always better than none . We have both prefer to mulch but takes time and labor , so some are un mulched . Sanbur if your trees are struggling try 2 to 4 inches of mulch , Prevents drought stress , released micros , moderates soil temps, hosts mice but easily controlled via bait stations .

I have been mulching with 2-6 inches of mulch. Usually cedar chips or other hardwood chips. I have not used pea rock except a few cases.

 

[sandbur]

Wooduck-do you have any tricks for these pocket gophers besides poison or traps?

 

[wooduck]

Nope,, poison or traps it is , I grew up in sand country our apples are on sand , so im a trapper every day if there's a new mound there's a trap in it,,, In fact when I got serious about this first thing I did was tackle the gophers and at that time they payed two dollar bounty, made enough to pay the property taxes that year, cleaned them out with time still have some sneak in every fall and spring, but I stay on em also use a poison machine as the project has gotten too big for hand trapping , We can and do irrigate every thing we grow , nice timely rains last year. We have a nice hard pan of clay at about three feet that's seems to help with drought stress .

 

[wooduck]

I

What is the typical cost? Penn State is $24 per sample. That is suggested to be 40 to 50 leaves from a block of trees of one variety on one rootstock. Hard to do for habitat trees.

May be the best 24 bucks you spend if it fixes something ?

 

[sandbur]

Nope,, poison or traps it is , I grew up in sand country our apples are on sand , so im a trapper every day if there's a new mound there's a trap in it,,, In fact when I got serious about this first thing I did was tackle the gophers and at that time they payed two dollar bounty, made enough to pay the property taxes that year, cleaned them out with time still have some sneak in every fall and spring, but I stay on em also use a poison machine as the project has gotten too big for hand trapping , We can and do irrigate every thing we grow , nice timely rains last year. We have a nice hard pan of clay at about three feet that's seems to help with drought stress .

We have a disabled person who traps the alfalfa fields in our area and does a great job. When he is not working my area, I use the traps and poison.

 

[chickenlittle]

May be the best 24 bucks you spend if it fixes something ?

For a tree or two, I could see doing it but not for many more.

 

[chickenlittle]

Also, I am generally taking a survival of the fittest approach. I want to minimize the maintenance and it is not that important if any particular variety does well or not. If I did do leaf analysis, I guess it woukd be for a modern fisease resistant variety that I was more confident I wanted. For the other stuff I decided to try, I would top work or replace if I felt it was poor performer.